Looking to reduce council tax

mrbrown

Hi. My neighbour recently appealed his tax band and has gone from a D to a C. Im in a band C, and his house has an extra bedroom, more garden and generally a lot bigger.

Ild like to appeal my band, especially as now he's managed to appeal and is the same band as me even though his house is a lot bigger. Its given me more confidence in thinking that my appeal would be successful.

Ive looked through Martin's article on the subject - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/council-tax-bands-change. His first check is to do a Neighbours Check. Unfortunately there is only one house near me which is similar (but not identical), and that is a Band C. So I tried Martin's second check - the Valuation Check. This indicates that house was worth £49,184 in 1991, which is just within Band B (the threshold being £52,000).

At the bottom of Martin's article he says that if you fail the first check but pass the second check, then its not worth the risk - in case the VOA increase your band or the bands of neighbours.

Personally I think I have a good shot at this because of the neighbour who has just won his appeal is now in a Band C. The worst case scenario is that they put up my band - or my other neighbour's band, but I cant see them doing this if the other neighbour with a bigger house has just had his band reduced to band C.

I was hoping to canvas opinion and see what you guys thought. Thanks.

00ec25

before you get too ahead of yourself you did check whether you are still within the time limit for making an appeal?

lincroft1710

Bearing in mind valuation checks and house price calculators are inaccurate, the band may be correct. Also as there are only 8 bands, there are going to be hundreds of thousands of different houses in the same band. If you are outside 6 months time limit you can only ask VOA to investigate your band, you have no right of an appeal to an independent tribunal hearing.

You will have to give the VOA a reason why you think your band is incorrect, don't use the D to C neighbour, use the price check figure and look to see if any nearby similar houses are a B.

mrbrown

00ec25: Yes, Im within the 6 months of being here.

lincroft1710: There has recently been a change of use on the land behind the house which will have an impact. Im going to use that as one of my reasons. Unfortunately there are no similar houses close by that I can make a band comparison with. All the other houses are a fare bit bigger (the 'D to C' neighbor being one of them).

lincroft1710

So you're also appealing on the grounds of physical change in the locality and consequent material reduction, which is one of the most difficult things to quantify as there is often little useful sales evidence. If it is a new housing estate, these tend not to have much effect on value unless it is a large council/housing association estate.